Talk:Detective Comics Vol 1 1
Cover Character Do we have any confirmation on the identity of the cover character? This character shows up in New Super-Man and at least one interview calls him Chin(g) Lung. Lung appears later in the series in Bruce Nelson stories but, oddly, isn't listed here. Kyletheobald (talk) 08:39, February 9, 2017 (UTC) :Either that's Fui Onyui, the villain from the Slam Bradley story, appearing in that same issue and returning in Detective Comics #22, OR it's just "stock footage" of a generic stereotypical mandarin-style 1930s Chinaman villain. Latter seems more likely than the former because it's drawn by Vincent Sullivan, not Joe Shuster (co-creator of Fui Onyui) Stoop Davy Dave (talk) 12:21, February 9, 2017 (UTC) ::Most online stuff I'm seeing says it is Chin Lung, despite not being listed here. It could be we just don't list him because he's not named until later? Apparently not appearing in the book wasn't an issue either. Mister Chan is supposedly on the cover of issue 8 even though he doesn't appear in that issue. Kyletheobald (talk) 16:20, February 9, 2017 (UTC) :What you're seeing online might be a lot of square pegs being banged into round holes. Acid test would be: Does Vincent Sullivan's big portrait look more like Tom Hickey's Chin Lung or Joe Shuster's Fui Onyui? What it really looks like, from here, is a bad drawing of a bad sculpture of a bad character, and has little in common with those other two villains, beyond appearing in different issues of the same comic book. And that ain't much. So I have to question whether the face on the cover even IS a character, let alone one particular character. Stoop Davy Dave (talk) 04:09, February 10, 2017 (UTC) ::There is sometimes something to be said for consensus in other sources. Anyway, of the options (Chin Lung, Fui Onyui, and Sen Yoi), Lung looks to me the most like the cover guy. Combine that with the fact that many of the cover do feature recognizable characters. Also, with Gene Luen Yang revitalizing him, I'd think he confirmed it with someone at DC. Kyletheobald (talk) 05:53, February 10, 2017 (UTC) :A "consensus" of unsupported speculation is still speculation, and there's nobody left alive from those meetings to confirm or deny any theory. So anybody presently "at DC" that Yang could have "confirmed" it with would, seriously, be only guessing also. :Counterexample: After the first issue, most of the first half-year year or so of Action Comics covers featured generic Mounties and Foreign Legionnaires and other men of action, none of whom could be named now by anybody, and none of whom necessarily appeared in stories in those issues of that comic. They used whatever art they had, or could get quickly. :In 1937, Detective Comics was brand new and like all 1st-generation anthology comic books, being assembled with great haste. Maybe they had a Fu-Manchu-ripoff character in mind already, and maybe they didn't. Maybe they were hoping to use the real original Fu Manchu character right from the start, but couldn't get Sax Rohmer on board until the following year (#17). Maybe this, maybe that. I doubt if as much thought went into it, then, as has already gone into it here on this Talk page. Hm. That's a good sign that I should stop arguing now, because my counterevidence isn't really any better than the bootless speculation about which I've been complaining. Never mind. Stoop Davy Dave (talk) 12:57, February 10, 2017 (UTC)